SuperPAC supporting Rick Perry draws up a plan to spend $55 million

A new SuperPAC backing Gov. Rick Perry’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination made plans to spend as much as $55 million, an official of the pro-Perry “Make Us Great Again” said this afternoon.

Early internal planning documents from Make Us Great Again, first obtained by NBC News, highlight the fundamental role that SuperPACs will play in the 2012 presidential election following a 2010 Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited expenditures by independent political action committees supporting candidates.

Candidates’ campaigns cannot legally coordinate with or delegate tasks to SuperPACs allied with them. But several of these organizations are run by their former employees and others with whom they have close ties.

Perry’s former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, co-founded Make Us Great Again in late July, nearly a month before the Texas governor officially entered the race. Toomey, also one of Texas’ top lobbyists, served under Perry from 2002 until 2004.

“Make Us Great Again” spokesman Jason Miller, said the document is an outdated estimate of how much the group plans to spend, but he could not provide an updated figure Tuesday.

“I can confirm that [the figure] did come from us,” Miller said. “I wouldn’t expect a new estimate soon, but I’d stay tuned.”

Miller said the document was authentic, but he did not give it to NBC News.

NBC News reported that Make Us Great Again plans to kick off spending with a $5 million advertising campaign on TV stations in Iowa and on the national-reaching Fox News. The internal document said the super PAC would spend all but $10 million of the total $55 million by March 25, 2012.